It is a scenario that few could have imagined possible at the start of the season, as OGC Nice head to the Parc des Princes on Sunday evening sitting four points clear of defending champions Paris Saint-Germain.

PSG fell to the biggest league defeat of the Qatari era, 3-0 in Montpellier, slipping to third place after red-hot leaders OGC Nice beat Toulouse 3-0 and Monaco walloped SC Bastia 5-0 to further increase their huge goal difference.

Nice boss Lucien Favre found that his side dealt well with the challenge posed by Toulouse as they ran out 3-0 winners and went three points clear atop the table; the TFC's Pascal Dupraz felt Les Aiglons have stepped up a grade.

Ligue 1 News Archives

PSG rout Nantes to close gap

Paris Saint-Germain have closed to within a point of Ligue 1 leaders Lyon thanks to an emphatic 4-1 defeat of Nantes on Saturday. Ludovic Giuly struck twice while Peguy Luyindula and Stéphane Sessegnon both found the net as Paul Le Guen's men swept to a third successive league victory.

Saturday, February 07, 2009

FC Nantes / Paris Saint-Germain : 1 - 4

It had been a testing week in the build-up to the game with new club president Sébastien Bazin's first task to suspend Mateja Keman, while a knee injury meant top scorer Guillaume Hoarau was unable to lead the line at the Stade de la Beaujoire Louis Fonteneau.

That left Le Guen two strikers short, but it barely showed as Giuly's early goal laid the foundations for one of PSG's most impressive performances of the season as they swept aside the disappointment of Wednesday's 3-0 League Cup semi-final defeat to Bordeaux to join the second-placed Girondins on 42 points.

Paired with Luyindula up front, the former French international had already struck a post before he snapped onto the loose ball when the home defence failed to clear his strike partner's cross to give his side a 12th-minute lead.

Nerves

Luyindula doubled the visitors' advantage ten minutes later after latching onto Claude Makelele's long ball, only for the hosts to be thrown a lifeline eight minutes before the interval when Sylvain Armand upended Aurelien Capoue in the box - Djamel Abdoun beat former Nantes captain Mickaël Landreau from the spot.

If there were any nerves among the PSG players during the half-time break, they were dispelled barely four minutes after the restart when Giuly claimed his second of the night.

Sessegnon then wrapped up an impressive win with the fourth on 69 minutes to give former PSG goalkeeper and current Nantes number one Jérôme Alonzo a night to forget.